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Sunday, 29 March 2015

Expelled student sneaks back to burn school

A secondary school student in Nandi is in police custody for interrogation after he was implicated in a school fire which destroyed a well equipped laboratory.The Form Four student of Chemuswo Secondary in Nandi Central had been suspended by the school management for displaying errant behaviour and it was his second attempt to reduce the African Development Bank sponsored facility to ashes.Accounts from witnesses had it that the student was spotted late evening hovering around the gates of the school some hours before the Sh20 million science laboratory caught fire and started exploding.“We saw that boy here late evening but we did not realise his mission until we saw the school engulfed in a ball of smoke then we reconnected his presence,” said a witness who did not wish to be named.His first attempt to reduce the facility to ashes in late night fire earned him suspension from the administration after fellow students foiled the incident he had masterminded with a few of his colleagues.Police said they will charge him with arson and press for deterrence sentence following a string of school fire that has rocked the county in the last four years.School principal, a Francis Keter, who is newly posted to the institution, perhaps still reeling in shock, was not taking phone calls by the time we went to press.No satisfactory explanation has been given as to how the boy gained entry into the school at night given that the facility is guarded round the clock but information we gathered is that he is a habitual truant who has crossed with the administration on several occasions. The student’s propensity to cause trouble has translated him into a marked man who has entered the dubious list of troublesome students in the history of the school.His actions will have far reaching implications on his national examinations and also negatively affect the image of the school which may in turn affect enrollment.